


Mysterious Fathoms Below

by batmanmonroe



Category: Revolution (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Merpeople, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-10-24
Packaged: 2018-02-07 08:47:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 8,717
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1892697
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/batmanmonroe/pseuds/batmanmonroe
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Landwalkers are bloodthirsty killers, worse than any shark.  All merfolk know that from the time they're fry.  But after a landwalker named Miles saves his life, Bass is beginning to wonder whether there was any truth to those tales.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Prologue- Strike the Bell

**Author's Note:**

> I was watching Splash, and reading fic for another fandom with where the characters were mer people. So I thought, "someone should write a Revolution mer-fic." And then I thought "Well I'm someone!" And here we are. Also you get little Miles and Ben. Aww.

“Miles, at least try to pretend you’re having fun,” Ben said with a long-suffering sigh. Miles scowled deeper and bent further over the railing of the cruise ship. On every one of his nine summers, his parents dragged him on some stupid trip, and every year Miles spent the whole time bored out of his skull while Ben clung to their parents.

“Go away,” Miles mumbled, looking down at the water. Maybe if the deck was longer, he could get away from all the inane chatter and the stench of sunscreen.

Ben rolled his eyes. “You are such a pain,” he groaned. “At least get inside soon. Looks like it’s gonna storm.” Miles jerked his head up at the silvery sky and made a noncommittal noise in the back of his throat. Ben seemed to take it as a yes and left Miles to stare moodily at the increasingly choppy waves.

Miles wasn’t sure how long he stood there, alone and apart from the rest of the passengers on the cruise liner. It wasn’t until a particularly rough wave sent the ship rolling that the boy jerked out of his thoughts. It was raining hard now—he hadn’t noticed. He really should get back into the cabin—everyone else had already deserted the deck.

He released the railing and turned to retreat, but the ship pitched again. Miles lost his footing and fell face-first onto the rain-soaked hard wood. With the waves tossing the ship in every direction, he couldn’t get back to his feet. He cried out for help that wouldn’t come as he slipped towards the gap between the metal cables that separated passengers from ocean. It was just wide enough for a nine-year-old boy to slip through and plummet down, down, down into the storm-tossed sea.

Miles had had swimming lessons, but never in currents or waves this strong. He twisted and thrashed, trying to fight to the surface, but he kept sinking despite his best efforts. His lungs burned, he needed to get up, but which way was up? Was that the last time he’d see Ben or his parents? Why was his body getting so heavy when he needed it to cooperate? His vision was getting dark, and his lungs slowly stopped hurting. In fact, he hung limp in the water, all feeling draining out of him.

Something cut through the water right as Miles was starting to drift out of consciousness. He didn’t see what it was, but it wrapped an arm around his chest and another under his legs and darted up to the surface too fast to be a human rescuer. With the creature’s help, Miles’ head broke the surface, and he coughed violently as he gasped to fill his starved lungs. “Th-thank y-you,” he spluttered, but there was no answer. Miles’ vision was still clearing from the lack of oxygen.

His rescuer didn’t answer anyway. It just beat the water with its fins or legs or whatever it had, and jumped out of the water far higher than any human could manage. It held Miles aloft in its arms, and with a wild, flailing arm, Miles was able to grasp onto the edge of the lowest deck and struggle back up to the ship. He turned to face the thing that had helped him, but it was already gone. All Miles thought he could see was a flash of dark blue fin.

Frustration, relief, and gratitude swirled inside him like the storm that had caused all this. Miles returned to the cabin, lost in thought once again. His mother fussed over his wet clothes and how long he’d been out in the storm, but Miles barely noticed. He was trying to remember if he’d seen anything when they’d been in the water, but only vague, disconnected images came to mind. It had been only inches smaller than he was, with pale skin and a deep blue tail. And Miles definitely remembered bright, bright blue eyes.


	2. Follow On Freedom

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It was just sentry duty. It wasn't supposed to be anything more than routine. But Mother Ocean has a way of giving merfolk a lot more than they bargained for, and this time it was Bass's turn.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well this took forever and a day to edit. But mer Bass is finally here!

Bass’s deep navy tail beat the water as he inched closer and closer to the light and warmth of the Above. It was his turn for sentry duty, which, up there, was one of the most dangerous tasks the Guard could assign. But the landwalkers needed to be watched, and prevented from taking their hooks and nets to the civilizations under the water. So Bass armed himself with his spear and sword and rose… until he felt his tail being tugged down. He rolled his eyes and twisted to see his distraught youngest sister hot on his flukes.

“I don’t like it when they make you go up there!” Angela was doing a very good job keeping up with Bass despite being thirteen years younger and not nearly as strong. “It’s dangerous, they’ll catch you and they’ll eat you and—”

Bass stopped short, the blue fins on either side of his face flaring in irritation. “Angie. I’ll be fine, always am. I’ve gotten out of worse scrapes than getting seen by some landwalker.” He grinned at her, but she only huffed, making a stream of bubbles flow out from her gills.

“Why do they keep making you risk it?” Angela’s pale blue face fins flared out to match her older brother’s dark blue ones.

“I’m protecting Jasper. It’s kinda my job.” She knew that, and she knew that there was more out there than sharks and rival mer-settlements to worry about. She never needed to see any of it, but that was only going to be possible if he and his unit kept watch and thwarted any attempts at destroying their village.

And the generals knew they could trust Bass to do that job. Most of the merfolk in the small unit feared the Above, and rarely stayed up until the tides changed like they were supposed to. Bass had the same fear, but he obediently stood still and stayed hidden until he had to overturn a boat or slice up a net.

He only hoped the generals never found out that once, when he was nine years old, Bass had actually saved a landwalker. If that ever got out, he’d be discharged from the unit at best. It didn’t matter that he’d only been a fry when it happened, and it would only make it worse that he didn’t have a reason for doing it. The fewer landwalkers that threatened Jasper and the ocean at large, the better. He’d learned that since that day, and deeply regretted what he’d done.

“Now will you go away?” Bass asked sharply. Angela huffed again, but turned a tail the color of both of their eyes back towards Jasper. Bass breathed a sigh of relief. He’d been worried she was going to follow him, and he didn’t think he’d ever forgive himself if anything happened to her while he was on patrol.

He forced the thought of his littlest sister on a landwalker’s hook out of his mind and kicked up to the warmth of the Above. When his head broke the surface, he swam to the sentry-rock. It was a shelf that, at high tide, lay just deep enough to submerge the gills that lay behind his pelvic fins, right below the juncture of flesh and scale. Above the water, a rock jutted up to hide the sentry from the landwalkers on the shore half a league away. He could watch them if he peered around it. Mother Ocean had blessed them with the perfect way to keep safe from their most deadly enemy.

Four landwalkers frequented this stretch of beach, though occasionally there were others. Right now, though, it was just the man with dark hair, the maid with blonde hair, and two blonde-haired fry, a boy and a girl. They stumble-fell across the sand, in the graceless movements they called ‘walking.’ It looked difficult. Bass kept his eyes fixed on them, though as the hours passed, his guard began to fall. As dangerous as landwalkers were, these never went past the sandbar, and it was hard to fear creatures who wouldn’t even look your way.

Bass’s facial fins flicked as a new landwalker staggered-fell down the slope of the beach (really, they looked ridiculous when they walked, not like a crab or any other creature that walked along the sandy bottom). He was dark-haired, too, and he scooped up the girl fry to spin her around in his arms. Bass watched them playing, looking almost like a merman would with his fry rather than a monster. Inexplicably, it tugged at his heartstrings.

He shook the thought from his head. Even if they weren’t coming close, even if he was spending hours itching as his skin dried in the sun, he couldn’t get this careless. Countless stories of merfolk getting killed in various, horrific ways by the landwalkers had been passed down through generations, and it was Bass’s job to make sure new versions of those tales never had to be told.

The sound of the water being broken by the spinning fins of a boat brought Bass’s mind swiftly back to the seafloor. He cursed himself for letting his attention drift and dove into the water. He thrust his spear towards the spinning fins, but the shaft snapped in half and drifted towards the bottom. Bass gritted his teeth and threw his full weight against the boat again and again, but it was too heavy for one lone merman to overturn.

Bass was so focused on trying to capsize the boat and drown the landwalkers inside that he didn’t notice them casting their net. He tried to jet away to the boat’s other side, but the net was already closing over him and starting to pull him back up to the Above. A joyful whoop sounded from the landwalkers on the boat. “Julia, we’re gonna eat good tonight!”

Panic set in, and Bass thrashed hard to try and break the ropes and get free. It only tangled them around his dangling fins made the net slam hard into the rock face, and his body with it. When the starfish cleared from his vision, Bass had an idea. He kicked hard against the water, pulling the net with him back to the shelf. The line was twisted on the jags of the outcropping, effectively stopping the landwalkers from pulling him to their boat. After another mighty thrash, Bass felt the tension in the net disappear. The landwalker yelled in frustration as it caught on the rock and slipped from his hands.

But the relief was short-lived. Bass was still ensnared in a fishing net that was caught around his arm, second dorsal fin, and the rocks. He was trapped in the Above, and the tide was slowly going out. Soon, the shelf would be exposed to the air and he wouldn’t be able to breathe. Bass yanked at the ropes, but they wouldn’t break or even give—he needed his spear, which lay broken on the ocean bottom. He flailed harder and harder, trying to at least get back into the water.

He refused to let the last conversation he had with Angela be telling her to go away. And he’d only given Cynthia and their parents the most cursory of goodbyes. He’d never dreamed that he wouldn’t see them again, his osnly job was to keep an eye on the landwalkers. There shouldn’t have been a question of whether he would come home to his mother’s kisses and his sisters dangling from his tail.

Thinking of his family made him fight harder and harder to get free and go home to them, but the more he struggled, the worse the tangle got. The ropes were leaving welts on his arms and back, and his fins were stuck so badly that he could barely move his flukes from their uncomfortable position over his shoulder.

He barely registered the splashing in the water that wasn’t coming from him until a voice made him jump out of his scales. “Hey, hey, easy! I got you. You’re okay.” Bass felt something pressing his body down onto the shelf, stilling him even as he twitched and fought against it. Suddenly, the ropes sprang free and the weight lifted. Bass dove back into the ocean and let his starved gills drink in the cool water. He looked up his rescuer, intending to thank him, but the words died on his lips. Hiding was pointless, because he’d already been seen, but he sank into the water up to his eyes anyway.

“A thank you would be nice,” quipped the landwalker. He was still holding the knife that he’d used on the rope, and Bass eyed it warily. Would he use it on his body, since he was unarmed? His brown eyes held no malice, just curiosity, and Bass realized that it was the landwalker who’d arrived on the shore after the others. “I mean, I did just stop Captain Neville from bringing home one hell of a catch.”

Bass slowly lifted the rest of his head above the water. “Neville?” he repeated cautiously, eyes narrowed. His tail flicked as he tensed his body, preparing to lunge at the landwalker and pin him under as he’d been trained to do. But he didn’t move. After all, he had inexplicably rescued him.

“Yeah, the guy on that boat. He’s a dick,” supplied the landwalker. His eyes swept over the surface, below which Bass’s tail was beating to keep him afloat even though his every instinct said _dive, you idiot._ “So, you’re… real? You’re not myths?” Bass stared, and curled his tail so that his flukes broke the surface, a _no duh_ expression on his face. “Holy shit.” He ran a hand over his face, and kept glancing at Bass’s flukes. In return, Bass kept his gaze fixed on the pale, hairy stalks of the landwalker’s legs. “… you don’t eat people, do you?”

Bass jumped at the question. How had the landwalker mistaken him for one of… them? When merfolk let themselves be consumed by rage and hatred, they became bloodthirsty monsters, ruled by instinct and hunger for flesh. Most merfolk believed that becoming a siren was a fate worse than death. He shook his head hard. “I’m not a siren.” The landwalker relaxed, though he was still staring. Bass frowned in return. “What… what about you? Don’t landwalkers eat fish and merfolk?” 

The landwalker snorted. “I try not to eat things that look like me. I think most of us are the same way.” Bass felt like he’d been tossed in a whirlpool. This didn’t make any sense. How could they not believe in merfolk? Every merperson knew landwalkers were vicious killers who existed only to terrorize, capture, and kill their kind. How could the landwalkers be afraid of _them?_ How could they not even realize they were _real?_ “Why do you look like somebody died?”

Bass shook his head. He wouldn’t understand. “Never mind.” 

The landwalker seemed pacified, even though it really wasn’t much of an answer. “Miles,” he offered.

It took Bass a moment to realize that the landwalker was actually introducing himself. That was a surprise. He hesitated, but relaxed and a bright smile lit up his whole face. “I’m Sebastian. Bass.” Of course he was still wary, but his curiosity was getting the better of him. He slid through the water to lean his folded arms on the shelf with his tail rising up behind him. “Oh, and… uh… thanks. For before.”

Mile grinned and crouched down to get on Bass’s level. “Don’t mention it. My niece would never forgive me if I let the mermaid die.”

Bass flinched, and drifted back. “The others? They saw me?”

Miles frowned. “Only Charlie, and she’s four. My brother and his wife didn’t believe her. Why? Is it _supposed_ to be a secret that you guys exist?”

Bass nodded. “Merfolk grow up hearing a lot of bad shit about landwalkers. We try to keep our distance.” Miles looked uncomfortable at that. “But… it looks like we were wrong?” His tail flicked hopefully.

“Very wrong,” Miles assured him. “Like I said, we thought you were myths, man, we don’t eat you or lock you up or anything like that. Now would you stop looking at me like someone killed your goldfish?”

“I believe you,” Bass said. And he did. Something about Miles’ deep brown eyes begged him to trust him, despite Bass having heard otherwise his whole life. And besides, Miles had saved his life. That had to count for something.

“Good. Like I said, my niece would have gone ballistic. You know how kids are. You got family?”

Words erupted from Bass’s mouth like bubbles from a heat vent. He told Miles all about Angie and Cynthia, and how much he worried about them when he was up here. He told them how Angie acted a little younger than fifteen and how Cynthia had every merman in the village chasing her tail but showed little interest in anything more than playing hard-to-catch.

In return, he got to learn about Miles’ brother, Ben, Ben’s wife, Rachel, and their fry-- kids, Charlie and Danny. Ben and Rachel studied fish and marine life, which worried Bass until Miles assured him that they helped nurse sick animals back to health and always released them. None of their research was harmful or posed any threat to the mer-world. Charlie was the older fry, the girl, who had a fixation on something Miles called a ‘movie’ about a mermaid who fell in love with a landwalker and became one herself, which was why she was so worried when she saw him in trouble. Bass made a mental note to thank her if he ever met her. Danny was unwell, he found out- his lungs didn’t breathe air right and he needed to be cared for around the clock. It was part of the reason Ben and Rachel moved out to the ocean: the air was cleaner here, and better to breathe. 

He told Miles that he was a soldier who fought to protect their village, and learned that Miles was a “Marine”, who did pretty much the same thing for his country on land. Unfortunately, that meant that Miles’ leave was only for about a month, and it made Bass’s heart twist oddly to know that they wouldn’t get to see each other for very long. And that was if he came up to sit watch.

By the time they finished talking, Bass’s throat was sore and the sun about to slip beneath the waves. “I should go,” Miles said, glancing back at the now-empty shore. “Ben probably thinks I drowned by now.” He stared into Bass’s eyes, suddenly more intent than usual. He opened his mouth as if he’d realized something and wanted to voice it, but thought better of it.

Bass wanted to ask, but didn’t. Instead, he frowned at the shoreline, thinking of what a long swim it was and how poorly landwalkers tended to move through the water. It can’t have been necessary for them to flop and flail so much. “That’s a really long swim for a landwalker.”

Miles waved a huge hand. “It’s fine. This is when all that Marine training pays off. I got over to you fast enough to keep you from suffocating, didn’t I?”

Bass couldn’t really argue with that. “But you still shouldn’t go all the way out there again.” He slumped into the water, thinking. He didn’t know why he came to the decision he did, but he rose up in excitement. “Want me to give you a ride?” He was sure he should be ashamed of offering himself up like a dolphin, but he didn’t mind.

Bewildered, Miles gazed at Bass as he stretched out full length against the edge of the shelf. But he lowered himself into the water. “Put your arms around my chest—yeah, like that,” Bass instructed. “And—no, I can’t swim with your legs like that.” Miles had wrapped his legs on either side of Bass’s tail, squeezing his pelvic fins painfully over his gills.

Immediately, Miles yanked one leg over to Bass’s other side, draping both over the side of his tail. It was much more comfortable. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, I just don’t want to fall too far under,” Bass replied, waving his hand just like Miles just had. The heat of Miles’ body on his chest felt much nicer than the heat of the sun, and Bass could smell something spicy surrounding him that had to be Miles’ skin. It was distracting. But not unpleasant at all. “You good?” he asked, snapping himself out of those thoughts. He twisted around to see Miles nod.

With no more warning than that, Bass took off to cut through the water, staying close to the surface so that Miles could breathe. Spray flared up on the edges of Bass’s wake, and he could hear Miles’ laughter above him. It made him smile, too. 

 

All too soon, Bass reached the shallows where he couldn’t swim. Miles slid off. “Thanks for the lift,” he said. His eyes were still bright, and he was grinning. “Bet not a lot of us landwalkers get to say they got to ride a mermaid.” He exaggerated the merfolk’s word for their kind, amusement coloring the word.  
Bass rolled his eyes (couldn’t Miles tell he wasn’t a maid?), but Miles wasn’t the only one still beaming. “You come to the surface often?”

Bass shook his head. “Only when I’m on patrol. Remember, we’ve always been told you’re dangerous. I only come up when my general thinks we need to be protected from hooks or nets or something.” A blush creeped over his face at the mention of nets.

“Hey, shit happens,” Miles assured him. “You’re not… you know… a bad sentry or anything like that. But I can understand a special assignment. I gotta say, though, I’m a little disappointed. I was hoping I’d get to see you again before I shipped out.” His eyes widened, and Bass’s face turned a darker red that this time, didn’t have anything to do with embarrassment.

“Well… I might be able to pull a few tentacles,” Bass said thoughtfully, shooting a lopsided grin right back. The generals sent him up to the surface more than anyone else anyway—mainly because he was the only one who didn’t bitch or panic about being so close to the landwalkers.

“I’m here for a month,” Miles replied hopefully. “So… see you?”

“See you, Miles.” Bass lifted a webbed hand in farewell and drank in the landwalker’s smile and rich brown eyes. They stayed like that for a moment, then Bass dove back into the sea, light and water scattering off his deep blue scales until he was fully under the waves.

The minute Bass turned the corner back to Jasper, Angela and Cynthia were on him like a shark to blood. He toppled over onto the sand as they slammed into him in a swirl of fins and arms and blonde hair.

“We were so worried!” added Angie, pushing Cynthia’s pale, nearly white, blue tail out of her way so she could twine her own around her older brother’s. Cynthia scowled but lashed her arms around his waist, squeezing just as tightly.

“I’m fine, I’m fine!” Bass assured them, rubbing each of their backs and pressing a kiss to each of their heads. He laughed a little as he tried to reassure them. “Let me up, I can’t breathe.” Reluctantly, they uncurled and pushed off of him, but he took each of their hands and held onto them as they made the short swim back to the pile of rocks and driftwood that served as their dwelling.

Gail, their mother, floated over to the hole in the rocks, her short blonde curls bobbing around her face. “Bass?” she asked. “You’re not hurt?” Her worry was worse even than his sisters’, and it made guilt twinge at his heart. He let go of Angie and Cynthia’s hands and embraced his mother.

“I’m fine, Mom,” he said yet again. He kissed his mother’s cheek. “I’m sorry I scared you.”

“You weren’t seen?” Gail asked.

Bass hesitated, but shook his head, feeling worse than ever for lying to her. But how could he tell them all the truth without frightening them worse? They’d never believe that , in the span of mere hours, he’d developed a dangerously soft spot for a landwalker.


	3. It's Been a Very Long Time

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They've only met once, but Miles can't get Bass out of his head, especially after a conversation with his niece.

Eighteen years ago, Miles had been saved from drowning. He’d long since written off the sight of fins and blue eyes as a figment of his imagination. It was common to hallucinate when you were starved for oxygen, right? Especially when you were nine years old and had an overactive imagination even when you _weren’t_ dying. He’d firmly believed that some good Samaritan had pulled him out of the water and graciously kept the secret from his parents and Ben.

But them Charlie pointed out the mermaid. Miles didn’t believe her any more than Ben or Rachel did, but she’d always inexplicably seen him as some kind of superhero, and as they’d carried her off the beach, he promised to check it out. The plan was just to stay out a little longer, then tell her some story about him sending the mermaid home to the sea. He hadn’t actually expected to see a flash of movement from behind a far-off rock.

Against his will, Miles’ mind shot back to the cruise liner, when he’d thought he’d seen a dark blue fin just like what had flapped against the rock. It was probably just a fish, he’d reasoned. A big fish. A big dark blue fish. But repeating that to himself hadn’t stopped him from wanting answers as badly as Charlie had wanted him to save the mermaid, and he stripped off his shirt and shoes and dove into the ocean.

His muscles burned as he finally pulled himself through the last stretch of water to the rock. He nearly collapsed into the water when he got a better look at the creature ensnared in the net, fighting to get free. The deep blue tail stuck on the ropes on the net was just as real as the creamy skin over the webbed hands scrabbling at its prison… just as real as the determined set of its eyes.

Bright blue eyes.

Well, it wasn’t a mer _maid_ ….

Years of Marine training helped Miles put aside his emotions- fear, shock, the thousands of questions that had been swirling in his head for eighteen years. He pulled his Swiss Army knife out of the pocket of his soaked shorts and sliced through the ropes until the merman flopped back into the water. And the rest of the afternoon had been weighing heavily on his mind for three days now, especially the part where Bass asked Miles to wrap his arms around his cool, slick chest and sped through the waves, tail bumping gently against Miles’ legs.

“Miles?” Rachel’s voice brought him sharply back to Earth, and the dinner table where Ben’s cooking was spread out in front of them. “You okay?” He gave himself a little shake to snap himself out of it and focus on the woman spooning mashed green stuff into Danny’s mouth.

“Yeah,” he grunted, squeezing his fork a little harder than necessary. “Why wouldn’t I be?”  
“You’re quieter than normal. And you’re not eating,” Ben pointed out as he cut up Charlie’s dinner for her. Miles glowered and shoveled grilled tilapia into his mouth at top speed. He had to force himself not to think about the fear on Bass’s face when he’d asked if ‘landwalkers’ ate merfolk. Worse was the thought that Neville probably would have done exactly that if he’d caught Bass.

That made Miles’ stomach turn. Without a word, he shoved his half-finished plate away and stalked out of the dining room. He brooded for hours in the guest room, gazing into the bottom of a whiskey bottle and failing spectacularly at not thinking about the sparkle of Bass’s tail and the rasp of his voice and Christ, _why_ hadn’t he asked about that day under the cruise ship? He was convinced it had been Bass, but why save someone your whole species thought of as a monster?

The door to the guest room creaked open. “Go away,” he grunted, but then he saw Charlie’s little body climbing up onto the bed next to him and felt guilty for snapping at her. “Hey, kid. Sorry. Didn’t mean to yell at you.”

“It’s okay, Uncle Miles,” she said cheerfully, snuggling up against his side, not bothered by the smell of alcohol. “Did you save the mermaid?”

“Merman,” Miles corrected, before he could stop himself. Damn alcohol. Why did he think getting drunk was a good idea again? “And… yeah, I did. He got stuck in one of Neville’s nets and I cut him out.” Charlie’s big blue eyes- not unlike Bass’s- went even bigger.

“You’re a hero!” she squeaked, throwing her arms around her uncle’s middle and squeezing tightly. He gave a cursory struggle, but slid an arm around her back, returning the hug.

“Anything for my favorite niece,” he said with a small smile.

Charlie giggled. “I’m your only niece.”

“Still my favorite,” he teased back, making a face at her, which made her laugh harder. Miles scooped her up and stood, holding her against his chest. “And you should be sleeping, young lady,” he pretended to scold, but there was no sternness in his voice.

Charlie yawned and laid her head against his chest as he carried her down the hallway towards the room she shared with her brother. “Are you gonna be Prince Eric?” she mumbled.

Miles froze. “What?”

“Prince Eric,” she repeated, muffled by his chest. “Ariel saved him, and you saved a mermaid. They fell in love and got married.”

“I-- _what?!_ ” Her words made sense, as much as a four-year-old’s ever did, but where’d she even get the idea that he was into guys, let alone fish-guys? “No. I just—no. I saved him, that’s it. Don’t make anything out of this, please.”

Charlie pouted, but let Miles set her down in her bed next to Danny’s crib. “I think you should.” Miles didn’t answer that, just pulled her blankets over her and kissed her forehead. “Night, Uncle Miles,” she yawned.

“Night, kid.” He pulled the door almost all the way closed and made his way back to his room to finish off his whiskey. With any luck, it could help him avoid thinking about Charlie’s words, or the way Bass’s too-blue eyes sparkled up at him, or how Bass had risked everything he knew to save Miles’ life when they were kids, or the blinding white of Bass’s smile….

Yeah, he was staying far away from that train of thought. Miles drank deeply, and eventually passed out, sprawled on top of the ugly floral duvet. Behind his eyelids, his mind replayed the image of Bass’s blinding white smile as he turned to dive back into the water, deep blue fishtail glittering in the dying sun.

~~~

It was several days before Miles worked up the nerve to go back out to the beach, but when he finally did, he arrived well before sunrise. He was being stupid and he knew it, but it didn’t matter that there was no guarantee that Bass would come back to the surface. Hell, it would probably be smart if he didn’t come back to the surface. Miles’ own CO would be pissed if he disappeared for hours on end like that. He didn’t think Bass’s would be any different just because they happened to have fins. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t hoping to see a head of blond curls popping up out of the water.

He sat on the beach for hours, gazing out at the water. Eventually, Rachel came up behind him to try and get him to come in for lunch. He shook her off without looking at each other, and eventually her footsteps crunched across the rocky shore as she went away.

Finally, as the sun was starting to set, Miles heard something swishing through the water. He got to his feet and splashed gracelessly through the water until he got to the sandbar. Bass was already there, arms resting on the sand, tail rising out of the water. “I was wondering why you weren’t coming back,” the merman said, smiling so brightly it almost hurt to look at him. “I thought you didn’t want to see me.”

“Well… I did,” Miles said lamely. Somehow, his utter loss for words made Bass laugh harder.

“Don’t sound so happy, man,” Bass smirked.

“Aren’t you supposed to be terrified of getting seen?” Miles glanced over his shoulder, but Rachel hadn’t come back and neither had anyone else.

Bass shrugged. “I’ve been careful. I swam across the whole beach twice to make sure no landwalkers were around, except you.” How had Miles not noticed that? “Cut me some slack, I’m a soldier—I don’t take risks that I don’t have to. Besides, taking chances is what makes life fun.”

Miles rolled his eyes, but found that Bass’s grin was infectious. “Just try not to get yourself killed, all right? Not all humans are gonna react like I did to finding out you’re real.”

“Yeah, thanks for the warning, Mom,” Bass laughed. This was a world away from how Bass had acted during their first meeting. Miles decided he liked seeing Bass this happy. “You won’t need to rescue me this time. I promise, I’m usually competent.”

Miles scrubbed a hand over his unshaven face, a nervous habit. His smile faded at the mention of being rescued. It reminded him why he’d been sitting out here from dawn to near dusk, and he wasn’t sure if he was ready for this. “Uh… yeah. Speaking of…” He trailed off, then took a deep breath. “This is gonna sound crazy.”

“Spit it out,” Bass asked, frowning. He tilted his head, flicking his tail in what looked like agitation.

Miles glowered, but continued, speaking slowly. He really, really didn’t want to have this conversation, but it needed to be done. “When I was nine, I was on this cruise ship with my brother. I fell overboard. No idea how I survived.” Bass’s eyes widened to the size of dinner plates. “I thought for sure I was gonna drown, but something saved me that day, and for the longest time… man, I thought I was crazy.”

“You’re not crazy.” Bass leaned up a little further onto the sandbar, until his gills were barely in the water.

“Yeah, well, I thought I was hallucinating. ‘Cause I saw a tail. A blue tail. And blue eyes.”

Those same blue eyes went, if possible, even wider, and Bass’s face went pale. That was all the confirmation Miles needed, even if Bass looked like he wanted nothing more than to turn tail and swim away. Yet to his credit, those blue eyes never looked away from Miles’ own brown ones. “You remember,” Miles murmured, inching closer to the water’s edge. “That _was_ you.”

Bass tore his gaze away and pushed away from the sandbar, back towards the open water. “We were fry, it was nothing,” he said, too quickly. “Look, I could be discharged or exiled from my village if anybody else found out I saved a landwalker, so just forget it, all right?” He pitched forward to dive away, but Miles wasn’t ready to let him get away, just like that. His hand lashed out and touched Bass’s fluke as it rose out of the water, stilling him.

Bass jolted up out of the water, staring avidly at Miles. He rose up closer to Miles’ level, and Miles knelt to meet him. “You saved my life,” Miles said, through a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat.

“You saved mine, too,” Bass reminded him with a shrug. “We’re even. It’s… it’s nothing.” It didn’t feel like nothing, and suddenly Bass’s blue eyes were too close, and Miles could smell the salty tang of the sea clinging to him. Bass’s eyes fluttered closed, and it sent alarm bells clanging inside Miles’ head. He stumbled back off the sandbar in the direction of the shore, eyes wide.

“What’s wrong?” Bass asked. He leaned up, seeking out that closeness to the point where a little gasp escaped his lips. His gills had come out of the water, and he had to sink back down, to Miles’ relief.

“Nothing,” Miles lied. His heart was pounding hard, and when Bass reached up to touch his leg, he flinched. “I just… I have to go. Rachel… my sister-in-law. She’s… um… calling.” Bass strained one of the fins framing his face, listening for the voice that wasn’t really coming from the beach house, but Miles didn’t wait for him to catch him in the lie. He splashed through the shallows and back to the beach as fast as he could, where Bass couldn’t follow.

Where the hell had _that_ come from?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry Miles is such an idiot. I promise he'll get better later. Way later. But first Bass has a whole lot of emotional constipation to loosen up. And maybe some other trouble....


	4. Our Men Must Earn Their Living

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bass may be warming up to one landwalker, but just like merfolk, not all of them are good. Captain Neville hasn't given up on the catch he lost yet, and with his wife's support and the help of a world-famous marine biologist, he's only going to get more determined.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I AM SO SORRY THIS ONE TOOK SO LONG. Rachel's hard to write and it was frustrating.

The door to the apartment over the cannery slammed open. “A catch like that could have made us a fortune!” snarled Tom. Julia dodged the door as it bounced off the wall to crash back closed. “Did you see the size of that thing? And we let it slip right through our fingers!” He slammed his fist against the wall.

“Tom!” Julia hissed, looking meaningfully from her irate husband to their son sleeping in her arms. It had been four days since they’d been off the boat, and they’d spent every second circling the fishing grounds.

“We had it caught, Julia. It was in our net!” Tom snarled, but he at least lowered his voice. “I never saw a fish that big in my life. If we can find more of them, we are gonna be rollin’ in it.”

“I know that,” she said irritably, adjusting Jason in her arms. “You haven’t let us forget. But flying into a rage isn’t going to catch it.” She crossed to the small, moth-eaten sofa and lay Jason down, pulling a thin throw over him. She kissed her son’s forehead, and turned back to Tom, a smile pulling at her lips. “Besides, you’re not thinking big enough.”

Tom’s eyes narrowed. “What are you saying?”

Julia stepped closer to her husband, blue eyes locked onto Tom’s dark ones. “What if it’s even more than just a huge fish? What if this could mean more than money?”

“Julia. Spit it out.”

She slid her hands over his shoulders. “I saw it, Tom. When it was struggling on the rock, before it broke through the net. I saw the tail, just like you… but I also saw a human arm.”

Tom’s brow furrowed. “Are you saying that was a mermaid out there?”

“That’s exactly what I’m saying.” Her eyes shone brightly. “I know it sounds crazy. But I know what I saw. It was real. And can you imagine what it would mean if we discovered that mermaids exist? That’s much more important than some giant fish.”

Tom put his arms around Julia’s waist and yanked her in closer. “I love you,” he growled, matching her devious grin.

“I know,” she smirked. Of course Tom wouldn’t question her, as unbelievable as what she’d seen had been. He knew better.

“We can get the science geeks to cut it and poke at it, but the credit’s gonna be all ours,” Tom said. “And we’re gonna get out of this town. We’re gonna be heroes.”

“That’s more like it,” Julia replied, before sealing her lips to her husband’s.

\---  
Their plan was set, but sailing around the fishing grounds for days hadn’t worked yet. The Nevilles needed equipment, and tanks, and researchers, and who better to turn to than two of the foremost oceanographers in the United States? Rachel Matheson and her husband Ben had come to their little town after meeting at a marine biology conference and married soon after. They’d set up a lab studying the wildlife of their coastline, and that made them the perfect candidates to help the Nevilles capture their little mermaid.

Tom knocked on the door to the lab with his most suave smile on his face. It was a few moments before Rachel answered, still dressed in a lab coat and wet rubber gloves with her blonde curls tied in a ponytail and safety glasses perched on top of her head. “Captain Neville,” she said evenly, blinking in surprise. “What can I do for you?”

“What kinda fish live around these parts?” Neville asked, still leering at her.

Rachel’s brow furrowed, and an undercurrent of irritation colored her voice. “You’ve been fishing here for as long as anyone can remember. You know the answer to that.”

“Humor me.” It was more demand than request. Rachel’s frown deepened.

“Well, we have haddock, cod, herring—“ but Neville cut her off with a dismissive wave of his hand. She was outright glaring now.

“No, no, I’m talking big fish—real big fish.”

Rachel shook her head. “I’m sorry, what are you asking me?” She stepped towards the door, intending to push it closed, but Neville stepped forward before she had the chance.

“Something’s out there, something about the size of a man,” Neville explained. There was a wild gleam in his dark eyes.

“A tuna?” Rachel suggested, but he interrupted her again. His smile had vanished. She wasn’t giving him the reaction he was hoping for, and it was starting to make his blood boil.

“This wasn’t a tuna. Maybe it wasn’t even a fish.” He stepped in a little closer to Rachel. “We got this thing caught in a net, and even though it escaped, we still got a look at it. My wife, Julia, swears she saw a human arm, and it was nowhere near its mouth.”

Rachel actually laughed out loud at that. Tom had to physically restrain himself from striking her. “Did you actually just barge into a research lab to tell me you found a _mermaid?_ ”

Tom was matching her glare now, teeth bared. “Aren’t you even a little bit curious about what this could mean for your research? For the world? This could mean something! And you’re just gonna pass that up?”

“You need to leave,” Rachel insisted. She shoved past him to yank the door back open. “Right now. You’re crazy.”

Neville stepped towards her, but he stood his ground and made it clear that he had no intention at all of leaving. “I’m gonna prove to you I’m not so crazy. You’re gonna regret saying no to all this when Julia and I are rolling in it with our little mermaid swimming behind us.”

“You’re a dick,” Rachel snarled back. With a grunt of effort, she shoved him back towards the door. While he was still caught by surprise, she slammed the door in his face. He stormed off, only temporarily deterred.

Neville didn’t get to see the way Rachel turned towards the back door where the larger pools were kept, the ones where they studied and rehabilitated dolphins and other large animals. Animals about the size of a mermaid.


	5. Won't You Go My Way?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Bass's disappearances are finally starting to be noticed, but it's all worth it as long as he can see Miles.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This one took FOREVER to churn out and I'm really really sorry and I don't have an excuse. Muses are fickle little bastards.

“I know that look.” Jeremy rolled onto his back, his storm-gray eyes alight with mischief and his spear dangling loosely from his fingers next to his green tail. “So, who is it?”

Bass rolled his eyes. He loved when he and his best friend patrolled together, he really did. But Jeremy had a nasty habit of sticking his nose into places it didn’t belong, and he was stubborn. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Come on, Bass,” Jeremy whined. “You’re head over fins for somebody and you’re not subtle about it. Friends tell each other stuff like this. So, who is it? Man, maid?”

“Don’t think about it too hard, man, your head’s gonna pop,” Bass teased, trying to change the subject.

Jeremy flipped back upright, still leaning casually against the shaft of his spear. “You could just tell me,” he answered, batting his eyes. “Are they in our village? Our unit?”

Bass huffed out a stream of bubbles. He and Jeremy had known each other since they were fry, and he loved Jeremy like a brother, but the merman was infuriating sometimes. “It’s nothing, all right? I saved his life, he saved mine, we’ve only talked a few times, and that’s it.”

“Is that what’s been taking you so long to get home from sentry duty?” Jeremy asked. His smile faded. “Everyone worries when you don’t get back by low tide. Davis was about ready to send out a search party the other day.”

“I know, I know.” Bass leaned his head back, raising his eyes to the surface. “My sisters haven’t let me forget it. But I’m safe, so drop it. Let’s just get back to the general, okay?”

“All right, all right, fine,” Jeremy said, pouting. “Don’t go siren on me.” It was a figure of speech that meant Bass was being unnecessarily irritable, like the merfolk who’d let hate change them into vicious monsters. 

“I’m sorry,” Bass sighed, as they turned to the outskirts of the village. “I’m just… I’m trying to get him out of my head. This is ridiculous. We barely know each other.”

“Sometimes one look is all it takes,” Jeremy said wisely.

“Only in fry stories.” They sped up the last few feet to where General Blanchard waited for them. Once dismissed, they turned away.

“Cheer up,” Jeremy said, noticing the glum look on Bass’s face. “If it’s meant to be, it’ll happen.” He clapped Bass on the shoulder in sympathy. “Race you home?” He didn’t wait for Bass to answer before shooting off to the main village. 

Jeremy saluted Bass lazily and dove into his dwelling, which was much closer to the reef they’d been patrolling. “I won!” he crowed, as Bass waved once. Now that Jeremy was out of sight, Bass glanced once at his own dwelling and darted up.

He didn’t get very far before Cynthia and Angela barred his way. “Bass, did your patrol end?” Cynthia nagged.

“Yes,” Bass said curtly. He didn’t have time for this. Already the light filtering down from the Above was turning orange. “Guys, I’m really sorry, I’ve got someplace to be.”

“Like where?” Angela demanded. “You’re never home anymore. It’s been like, a week since we’ve seen you at all!” Her big blue eyes looked like they were about to bubble over with tears, and it tugged at Bass’s heart.

“Look, I won’t be gone long. There’s someone I need to talk to. That’s all. I’ll be right home.”

“Promise?” Angela asked. Cynthia wasn’t convinced.

“I promise. Now get home, Mom’s probably got dinner all ready for you two.” Cynthia huffed in annoyance, but led Angela back down to their house. Once Bass was sure they were gone, he shot up to the surface. He shouldn’t keep doing this. He was worrying his family with his secrecy, but he couldn’t very well tell them he was going up to see a landwalker.

Just Bass’s eyes broke the surface, enough for him to see Miles waiting on the shore. He stayed hidden long enough to do a quick sweep of the beach, then dove. When he shot up, his momentum carried him clear out of the water in a spectacular flip that sent light and water scattering off his sparkling tail.

Miles applauded as he waded into the water. “Very impressive,” he drawled, as Bass came up to meet him at the sandbar.

“Once again, I was careful,” Bass grinned. He came up to sit on the sandbar with his tail in the sea, leaning against Miles’ legs. Miles jumped as if stung by a jellyfish. “Besides, I just wanted to see you. I’ve been coming up every day, and you haven’t been here.”

Miles swallowed hard at that, and slid away. Bass’s heart flipped like a dolphin when he realized Miles had only done it so he could sit on the sandbar, in the water to his waist, closer to Bass. It was the first time they’d been able to sit together like this, as equals, instead of Bass looking up at Miles. “I missed you,” Bass murmured, taking advantage of the new position to tuck his body against Miles’ side. 

Miles made a strangled noise in the back of his throat, but didn’t move the whole time they sat in contented silence, not even when Bass laid his head on his shoulder. “You okay?” Bass mumbled after the fourth time Miles flinched at Bass’s tail brushing his legs.

“Uh, yeah.” Miles scrubbed a hand over his face. “It’s just… isn’t this a little weird to you?”

“Weird how?” Bass lifted his head to meet Miles’ fathomless brown eyes. Miles’ breath hitched as it always did when they looked directly at each other. It made Bass’s heart do little dolphin flips every time it happened. “Because you have legs and I don’t?”

“No!” Miles said a little too quickly. “Well, yeah, but… I don’t know. Never really thought about a guy like this before.”

“Like how?” Now it was Bass’s turn for his breath to hitch. His gills didn’t seem to be working despite being submerged, and a whole school of butterfly fish had taken up residence in his stomach. The answer to Miles’ question was no, it wasn’t weird- Bass had always liked both men and maids. The only weird part was just how _strong_ he felt for _this_ man who wasn’t even the same species.

Miles pulled away this time. “Never mind. It’s not important. I should go, it’s late.” He started to push his legs out of the water to stand, but Bass seized his hand, holding him down.

“Are you always this emotionally dammed or is it just with me?” Bass asked, blue eyes gleaming. Miles started to speak, but Bass launched himself against his chest and crushed his mouth to his.

Electric eels shot up Bass’s spine and spread that warm tingling down his arms, down webbed fingers that clung to Miles’ strong shoulders, and all the way down to his flukes. Miles was tense at first, but it wasn’t long before he relaxed, lips moving down Bass’s own with just as much passion. Bass smiled into the kiss as rough fingers tugged at his drying, salt-crusted curls.

“We shouldn’t do this,” Miles panted. “I’m leaving in less than a week. You’re not—mmph!” Bass stopped him talking with another kiss.

“Then make this week count,” Bass said huskily between kisses.

A splash from behind them broke the spell. Bass twisted back around to face the ocean and the blonde head sticking up out of it with shock and dismay etched into every line of his face. Gray eyes locked onto blue, darted to brown and back. Bass had never seen Jeremy so horrified.

“I’ve got to go,” Bass lamented to Miles.

“You’re damn right you do,” Jeremy piped up. Bass cast Miles one more apologetic glance before diving into the ocean after his friend.

“A landwalker?” Jeremy demanded the moment they were underwater. The fins framing his face flared out in anger. “The guy you’ve been pining for all this time is a _landwalker?”_

“This is why I didn’t want to tell you!” Bass shot back. “I knew you were going to react like this.”

“Why, because it’s my job as your best friend to make sure you don’t end up filleted?”

“They’re not like that!” Bass insisted. “ _He’s_ not like that. Leave it alone, Jeremy. And for Mother Ocean’s sake, don’t _tell_ anybody!”

Jeremy hissed out a stream of bubbles, but deflated as his anger drifted away. “You know you can trust me with anything. I’m not going to get you sent out of Jasper.” He put a hand on Bass’s shoulder. “Just don’t do anything too stupid, okay?”

“I’m not a fry, Jeremy,” Bass said, shaking him off and swimming ahead of him. “I can take care of myself. We were wrong about the Above. He won’t hurt us.” He swam back to his dwelling, oblivious to the doubt on Jeremy’s face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, I am SO sorry for the wait. This has not been abandoned, I'm just trash. Hopefully Miloe kisses and perpetually naked Mark Pellegrino make up for it. And perpetually naked Blanchard. SEA WALNUTS.


End file.
